DENVER — Three friends are calling for safety improvements to a stretch of Interstate 25 in Denver and its surrounding interchange after losing their close friend in a wrong-way crash early Halloween morning.
Jamie Kisting, 29, was driving home from her bartending shift when a woman driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-25 crashed head-on into Kisting's vehicle. The crash happened just before 3 a.m., and both drivers died at the scene.
Kisting's friends — Peter Aldinger, Logan Hough, and Emma Cooper — said they often avoided the area and interchange even before the crash. The group worked together at Atomic Cowboy on South Broadway and said taking the interstate home from their late-night shifts is dangerous.
"Driving home at night, it was like dodging bullets everywhere you go," Aldinger said. "People are just swerving all over. They're street racing."
Back in August, a man was killed in a wrong-way crash near the same area where Kisting was killed on West 6th Avenue and North Osage Street around 2 a.m., according to Denver police.
- Watch our report on the crash below
"Just that whole Sixth Avenue mixer is a nightmare," said Aldinger.
"They're not just like statistics, and they're not just a news article," Cooper added. "Like, these are real people, and these are friends and our family that we're losing."
The group of friends said the I-25 interchange is confusing after dark, poorly lit, and could use more wrong-way signage. They're now pushing for changes to prevent future tragedies.
"We could at least maybe start with some more police presence, because that stretch of highway is so dangerous at night," said Aldinger.
The Denver Police Department told Denver7 that officers are still investigating the cause of the crash, but suspect impairment. A police spokesperson said the department reviews fatal crashes with Denver's Department of Transportation & Infrastructure (DOTI) and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to determine if roadway changes could help prevent future crashes.
A CDOT spokesperson said the department is nearly finished with a project to improve both directions of I-25 from Alameda to 44th avenues, which includes resurfacing, new pavement markings separating lanes, sign replacements, and shoulder pavement markings.
- Read a statement from CDOT below
"On behalf of CDOT, we are deeply saddened by the fatal crash that occurred. While CDOT is committed to road safety and continuously evaluates our roadways, it is the fundamental responsibility of every driver to observe all posted signs and drive in a safe manner. We urge drivers to be aware of their surroundings at all times while operating a vehicle."
Denver7 is also taking safety concerns to the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) to get a better idea of how widespread the issue of wrong-way crashes is across the state. CSP Sergeant Ivan Alvarado said troopers have stopped nearly 1,300 wrong-way drivers in the past four years.
"There's really not a place where we could say it happens here more often than none," Alvarado said. "It happens everywhere, and there's a lot of factors that we blame — driving drunk, distracted, drowsy, just sometimes careless driving, reckless driving."
Alvarado said CSP has responded to 636 wrong-way crashes across the state from 2020 to this time in 2025. The impacts from those crashes range from car damage to fatalities.
While he acknowledges better signage could help reduce wrong-way driving incidents, Alvarado cautioned that too many signs can also create more confusion.
For Kisting's friends, the statistics represent more than numbers.
"Jamie wasn't just 'woman killed on I-25.' She was Jamie Ann Kisting, and she was my best friend," said Aldinger.
